<p>Multiple elected officials in the county have said they and their employees are underpaid and, in some cases, doing the work of more than one person.</p>
<p>County auditor Pam Burton, Treasurer Michele Graves and Coroner Craig Lutz asked the county council, which is the elected board that decides how to spend taxpayer money, to grant them raises ranging from 9 to almost 30 percent in 2020.</p>
<p>Wage data from the state association of counties has shown that some county employees make less than their counterparts at similar sized and smaller counties. And county council members have for months struggled with how to help employees who will have smaller paychecks every other week throughout 2020, even though their salary has not gone down, because their total salary will be spread out across one more check based on the pay calendar.</p>
<p>Elected officials such as the treasurer, auditor and coroner and other appointed department leaders were told to propose a 2020 spending plan for their departments that included 5 percent raises.</p>[sc:text-divider text-divider-title="Story continues below gallery" ]
<p>Graves and Burton both sought 9 percent raises for themselves and their employees. Lutz originally asked for a nearly 30 percent raise for himself and his deputy.</p>
<p>Graves and Burton had found savings in their departments that they thought would allow them to propose the raises. Lutz submitted a memo with his budget that compared his salary with other counties that showed the county coroner was among the lowest paid in the state.</p>
<p>Multiple county council members said that there was an unwritten ruled that elected officials do not ask for raises for themselves above the guidelines the county council gives them, and each proposal for the individual elected official was reduced. </p>
<p>“The biggest issue is you have a lot of other departments and a lot of other elected officials that you are not giving the same comparison increase with," Josh McCarty, county council president said. "It comes down to a decision of fairness and trying to be as equitable as we can."</p>
<p>Most employees in both the auditor and treasurer offices are slated to receive 9 percent raises, if the 2020 budget is approved as it is currently proposed.</p>
<p>County council members voted down the 9 percent raise for Burton, but did allow her to receive the recommended 5 percent raise, which would bring her salary to $63,516. Graves got a 7.62 percent raise which would bring her salary up to $60,500. Lutz and his deputy, both who are part-time, will receive 15 percent raises. The 15 percent raise brings the coroner’s salary to $26,877.</p>
<p>All of their positions are elected by voters every four years.</p>
<p>Graves received more than the 5 percent, but less than the proposed 9 percent because her position is considered one of the core elected offices in the county, but is one of the lowest paid, county council member Rob Henderson said.</p>
<p>Lutz originally asked for just under 30 percent in an earlier budget proposal, but the council said no. The 15 percent raise is a compromise after Lutz showed that he was underpaid compared to other county coroners who have similar work loads, McCarty said.</p>
<p>Also, the coroner job takes a highly skilled individual, McCarty said.</p>
<p>"This is one of those situations where this is a tough job and it takes a well qualified individual," he said.</p>
<p>Asking for a raise for yourself is uncomfortable, Graves said, but she is among the lowest paid full-time elected positions in the county and in counties similar in size.</p>
<p>Graves looked at the savings her seven-person department had garnered by eliminating a position and through other efficiencies, and spread raises out among all the employees in her office, including herself, she said.</p>
<p>“It was not an additional burden to the taxpayers, in fact we were sharing the majority of that money," Graves said.</p>
<p>The auditor’s office has not gone outside of salary increase guidelines in more than 25 years, which has caused a salary disparity for the auditor, Burton said.</p>
<p>The auditor’s office also has increased turnover, which creates more work for the entire office. The auditor’s office has had a 53 percent employee turn over rate in the last two years, as office employees leave for higher paying jobs in other county departments. The raises would help reduce that turnover by increasing the base salary, Burton said.</p>
<p>Most functions of the county government pass through the auditor’s office, she said. The office has also collected nearly $6 million in tax sales and fraudulent homestead tax collection over the last five years, Burton said.</p>
<p>All elected officials in Johnson County are among the lowest paid when compared with counties in Indiana that have more than 150,000 people, according to the latest data compiled by the Association of Indiana Counties.</p>
<p>However, Johnson County had the smallest population of the 11 Indiana counties with more than 150,000 people, according to the data.</p>
<p>In some instances, Johnson County elected officials made about the same or below what other counties with less 150,000 people paid those officials, even though those counties have a fraction of the population.</p>
<p>For example, treasurers in LaPorte, Madison and Monroe counties were all paid more than Johnson County’s treasurer, although Johnson County has tens of thousands more people,which means Johnson County has bigger budgets to manage, more tax bills to send and more people to serve.</p>
<p>Auditors in LaPorte and Monroe counties made more than Johnson County’s auditor. Most county elected positions would still make less than similar counties, even after their proposed raises for 2020.</p>
<p>Hendricks and Porter counties have populations closest to Johnson County’s and most of their elected officials made thousands of dollars more than all the Johnson County officials, according to the data.</p>
<p>Their treasurers made $6,000 to $10,000 more, and their auditors are paid $5,000 to $15,000 more, according to the data.</p>
<p>“We recognize that on these county comparison sheets that those employees and elected officials are on the bottom of pay scales," McCarty said.</p>
<p>The county council was also seeking a way to help offset what will appear to be lower paychecks in 2020, as annual salaries are spread out among one additional paycheck due to how the calendar falls. </p>
<p>Most departments in the county adhered to the 5 percent increase, unless they had a group of employees that were widely taking on more responsibility or had group job title changes, such as courthouse security, who are receiving double digit raises because they are being cross trained to also work in the jail, according to county budget documents.</p>
<p>Other employees in other offices such as the clerk’s office, some court employees, some employees in the assessor’s office, park maintenance employees and some probation officers are also set to receive raises above the recommended 5 percent, according to county budget documents. </p>
<p>Some increases department heads asked for went into double digits, with the courthouse maintenance staff asking for some employees to receive nearly 24 percent and 26 percent raises. Department head Jason Miller argued that the workers were underpaid, with some making less than $30,000 a year. Most of those employees are set to get a 9 percent raise if the budget is approved on Monday.</p>
